What We Know About August 2026's Record Global Heat

August 2026 was the warmest month ever recorded on Earth, according to a report discussed by ABC News meteorologist Somara Theodore in a segment posted Sept. 17, 2026, on ABC News Live. The same clip includes meteorologist Ginger Zee's report on an effort to use drones for cloud seeding, a method of encouraging rainfall that researchers are testing as parts of the country deal with heat and drought.

What Does the Report Say Caused the August Heat?

Theodore's portion of the segment "shares what this report is saying about why August was the warmest month ever recorded," according to ABC News' own description of the clip. That description does not name the agency or research group behind the report, state a specific global average temperature, or say by how much August 2026 surpassed the previous record. Those details are presented on air rather than in the text posted alongside the video.

How Does Drone Cloud Seeding Fit Into the Coverage?

In the same segment, Zee reports on efforts to use drones to help make rain, a technique known as cloud seeding that disperses material into clouds to encourage precipitation. ABC News' description does not say where the drone testing is taking place, who is running it, or whether the effort is framed as a direct response to the August heat record or a separate weather story paired with it in the broadcast.

Is Record Heat Showing Up in Other ABC Coverage This Week?

The same page hosting the August heat segment also lists an ongoing ABC News Live stream tracking "the flood threat from the Southwest to the Plains; record heat from Texas to Kentucky," according to the network's own listing. That livestream description does not specify temperatures or dates beyond naming the two regions, but it indicates the network was covering elevated heat in the central U.S. the same week it reported the global August record.

What Isn't Public Yet About the Underlying Report?

ABC News has not posted a separate article or document laying out the report's methodology, data source or authorship alongside the video description reviewed for this piece. That leaves open which dataset — satellite readings, surface-station averages or a combination — produced the ranking, and how August 2026 compares numerically with prior record months. HTT News has tracked other climate-adjacent research this month, including a reef-safe sunscreen developed from pollen, part of a wider set of studies responding to warming oceans.

Where Can the Segment Be Watched in Full?

The complete clip, including Theodore's discussion of the report and Zee's cloud-seeding report, is posted on ABC News Live and dated Sept. 17, 2026.